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The Queen
The Queen, also known as Vader Eloha, is a mysterious entity known to be the surrogate mother of (and creation of) Hugo. She appears essentially human although she is not. Her body appears to manifest itself in the same way as The Batter's; she is the only other direct creation of Hugo as well as the only other being able to control Add-Ons in the same way as The Batter. The Queen is in charge of the Guardians as a group, who in turn control various Zones. Her exact purpose in doing so is obscure. She is never observed to directly interact with any Guardians during the course of the game beforehand, although her existence is directly referred to. Profile Appearance The Queen is one of the most outwardly non-threatening, humanoid-looking entities in the game. However, like The Batter, she is confirmed as not truly being human. She possesses a flowing white gown reminiscent of that worn during weddings and other formal type services. She also has long hair that appears to be related to tentacle-like ends that seem to be coming out of her body. However, these ends may actually come from her elegant attire. Her face is either non-existent or heavily obscured, giving an appearance on her head similar to that of a mannequin. Mortis Ghost has also drawn a version of her with a skeletal face and a crown floating above her head, giving her a different appearance than her sprite. Personality In personality terms, she exists as somewhat of a feminine counterpart to The Batter. They both share a deep sense of purpose and moral conviction from their actions as well as a willingness to debate such things, at least for a short time. It is unclear to what extent The Queen understands the depths of despair and tremendous problems that the various Zones had descended to by the time The Batter begins his fights. Whether or not she holds to a naïve viewpoint of everything as going well versus believing that even a suffering existence is preferable to oblivion, or holding some other way of thinking, is unknown. The relationship between her and The Batter is questionable, with her at one point calling him, "my love." During a Q&A on DeviantArt, Mortis revealed that The Queen's audible dialogue is gibberish''I already said a few times that The Queen is saying a lot of gibberish, and read all of it trying to find a meaning on each sentence isn’t the good way to understand what she’s trying to say. She’s contradicts herself, as you can see. Try to interpret her speech in a more global way.'' - Mortis Ghost, DeviantArt, 11/10/2013. Plot In Chapter 1 of the events that take place within The Room, The Batter approaches The Queen, fighting her and eventually killing her after a brief dialogue. The Queen is the protector of Hugo and serves as his mother, though still being his creation. As The Batter challenges her, she exclaims "I won't let you lay a finger on the son that has brought us into this world!". In Battle The Queen is the second hardest boss fight in the game; defeating her is more difficult than the true final boss battle but easier than facing Sugar. Like The Batter, she has three Add-Ons (though hers look significantly more ornate and beautiful than his) that will attack in unison with her. It is unknown if other characters in the game are inherently unable to use Add-Ons or if they are just otherwise hampered in some way (such as being unable to locate them). Unlike Sugar's entities, called "dummies", The Queen's Add-Ons are tough enough to withstand multiple hits. However, The Batter's Add-On named Epsilon is able to eliminate them in a relatively short time through its multiple attack ability. Competences The Queen herself attacks The Batter by berating him, his quest, and his treatment of Hugo. Despite not physically attacking The Batter, these deal a fair lot of damage and can inflict status effects. Her attack quotes include: * He loves you not. * Have you filled your life with beauty? * No dessert for you. * You’ve been wrong since the beginning. * You don’t even know his first name. * I am gravely disappointed. * There is nothing but the void after me. * You are mistaken. The extent to which her comments are either almost entirely true, partly true, or almost entirely false depends on character interpretations, given the ambiguous nature of the game. It is possible that she is correct in that The Batter is an immoral agent of destruction and that he failed as a father-like figure in terms of Hugo, with her words causing direct harm by piercing the perception that The Batter has of himself as a well-intentioned extremist "purifying" the world. It is also possible that The Batter is emotionally failing to keep his generally stoic resolve due to his remaining affection for both her and Hugo, hence why the words hurt so much, yet The Queen is still ultimately self-serving and wrong because The Batter's actions are mercy killings, meant to end suffering that must be stopped. The whole matter is deliberately left open. Her attacks and their effects are as follows; Trivia * In the English version of the game, part of her dialogue has been mistranslated as "I won't let you lay a finger on the son that we have brought into the world!", making for a different ending. The line is, in fact, "I won't let you lay a finger on the son that brought us into the world". * The term "Eloha", in keeping with the religious themes in other names in the game (such as the Add-On names "Alpha" and "Omega"), is one of the traditional Jewish and Christian titles for God, [http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Eloha/eloha.html Eloah.] * As she is dying, The Queen mentions a party that was supposed to be "tonight" and that she had made cake. She also asks The Batter how he would like his coffee. The significance of these lines are not clear. It is possible that she is merely hallucinating about past good times in her possible relationship with The Batter, but the lines may be deliberately said in order to cause even more guilt in both The Batter and The Player for their actions. * The title card for her "Chapter" of The room displays what appears to be an emperor moth (or possibly a Polyphemus moth). The use of an "emperor" moth motif works as a reference to her nature, with her serving as leader of all of the various Guardians in all of the Zones. ** One of her Add-Ons, Ipsilon, shares a name with Agrotis ipsilon, a species of moth. This is likely a play on epsilon, following the pattern of Add-Ons having Greek letter names. * The Queen is the only character aside from The Batter to have Add-Ons, emphasizing a possible connection between the two. * The Queen's quote "There is nothing but the void after me." can be seen as foreshadowing. Once The Batter defeats her, the Zone is purified. Everything vanishes in the area aside from The room Hugo resides in. The fact that The Queen's statement is correct points to her other words against The Batter also likely being at least somewhat true. * The extent to which The Queen knows about the existence of The Player is unknown. However, some of the statements made by her seem to challenge The Player directly. The line "You don’t even know his first name." in particular appears to be directed specifically at The Player since the exact name of the child (Hugo) is not given in the game-play at any point before The Queen is encountered. The line may also have a double-meaning in that The Player does not appear to know or care about the real name of The Batter either. * The direct reference to both The Queen and The Batter as created beings made by Hugo may point to the entire game existing only inside of Hugo's immediate environment or even his own mind. Thus, the conflict between the two characters may exist as parts of Hugo's own being fighting it out, the defeat of The Queen and other entities symbolizing the child's willingness to accept its own death given its illness. Alternatively, Hugo may be picturing the struggle as to whether or not he should have life support cut by someone else in the real world, putting all of that in metaphorical terms. Either of these interpretations fit in well with the flicking of the switch from on to off in the main ending of the game, given the similarity with turning off life support to the terminally ill. However, like all character interpretations the exact answer is unknown. * It is possible that both The Batter and The Queen were deliberately designed in the context of the game as stand-ins for the long dead parents of Hugo. This would explain why those two characters appear essentially normal and visually non-threatening in contrast to many other entities encountered in the game, such as the other Guardians. This would also explain why those two dress in ways strongly associated with real-world job occupations and hobbies (The Batter as a baseball player and The Queen perhaps as an elegant actress, model, singer, and/or socialite). * A comment made in the game before meeting The Queen, referring her "thousand faces", seems to indicate that she has the same ability as The Batter in terms of appearing different to different characters (similar to how The Player views The Batter very different from how Sugar does). * When reversed, it is revealed that the "gibberish" The Queen is saying is "va ranger ta chambre", which means "go tidy your room" in French. Gallery Queen_sprite.png | Sprite Vader 02.jpg | Concept art depicting the battle sprites of The Queen and her Add-Ons Wrong.png | One of the various phrases The Queen utters while in battle with The Batter Delta sprite.png | Add-On Delta Ipsilon sprite.png | Add-On Ipsilon Sigma sprite.png | Add-On Sigma Vaderconcept.jpg | Concept art of an alternate version of The Queen. Possibly mirroring Bad Batter VaderelohaB.png | Art from Mortis Ghost depicting her with a skeletal face and a floating crown |link=http://brainplaguerewind.tumblr.com/post/116124672797 Vadereloha.PNG | Art from Mortis Ghost. |link=http://brainplaguerewind.tumblr.com/post/116124672797 VADEREHOLA.jpeg | Artwork by Mortis Ghost, depicting Vader Ehola along with her Add-Ons. It is being sold as a print at his store |link=http://mortisghost.tictail.com/product/vader-eloha-print-a4 Eloha.jpg | A drawing by Mortis Ghost of The Queen spawning spectres from her hands |link=http://brainplaguerewind.tumblr.com/post/148594204292 References Queen, The